A lot of people want to donate old cellphones this season either for people in need or to protect the Earth from what's inside. But you may also be handing over plenty of information to give even the laziest of criminals a crack at your identity, whether you realize it or not.

A smartphone can be your best journal. It holds contacts, birthdays, photos, websites and passwords -- all available to hackers if you’re not careful.

Detective Roy Howell’s job is to find out what suspects hide, digitally.

“Fraud, homicides, hacking, death investigations,” Howell said.

His equipment can recover a lot of data even after it's deleted.

Howell said the systems are too expensive and too intricate for an everyday crook, but the technology is out there.

“I would say go in and delete it, personally, erase that information and then go back and if you have that option for factory reset, then do the factory reset on top of it,” he said.

If you’re looking to protect your personal information without smashing the phone, Howell said to go in and delete every app, contact and photo individually, then perform a factory reset if it’s available on your model.

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